1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the remote control of electronic-devices such as televisions; HDTV; home-entertainment-systems; home theatre systems; cable-boxes; satellite-TV equipment; media-centers; Digital Video Recorders (DVR); DVD-players/recorders; VCR's; media players; CD players; music players/systems; digital music devices; personal computers; computers; displays; appliances; lighting systems; sound systems; security systems; heating/cooling systems; video game systems; games; toys; or any other type of electronic device that user(s) may control or interact-with.
2. Description of Related Art
Current remote-controllers (i.e., remote-control or remote) are complex to use because of the large number of control-buttons they have. Two examples of prior art remote controllers are shown in FIG. 0a. Many prior art remotes have 40 to 65 or more physical buttons. The large number of buttons, present difficulties and are confusing for many users. Many users do not know what all the buttons do and are unable to use them. At any given time, only a portion of the buttons may be functional; but the presence of these non-functional buttons makes it more difficult for the user to find the button for the desired function.
A remote with a large number of buttons will tend to have smaller size buttons that are tightly packed and small size button-labels, which present additional difficulties for certain users (e.g., users with large fingers or farsighted vision). In addition, the small size buttons often result in text-abbreviations or small-icons that the user has difficulty seeing and/or deciphering their intended meaning. In addition, the user may be using the remote-control in a darkened room, where limited ambient light may make it difficult to see and/or find the desired buttons.
In addition, in many applications, the user is required to continually switch between looking “down” at the remote control buttons and looking “up” at the visual display to see if the intended action is occurring. In addition, switching between nearsighted tasks (e.g., looking at the control buttons) and farsighted tasks (e.g., looking up at a display) may present range of focus/correction problems (e.g., presbyopia) for certain users.
In addition, the user may need to press specific navigation buttons such as up; down; right; and/or left to move the selection-point (e.g., the action-point) on the screen. The user often needs to press the navigation buttons multiple times and in a particular order to arrive at a desired menu-item or selection. In addition, the user may need to alternately look up to the screen and back-down to the navigation and/or other control buttons multiple times; to check that the navigation movements or control actions are happening as expected and the intended navigation action is occurring.
In addition, some remotes utilize multi-button functional combinations (i.e., user must press multiple buttons at the same time) which further increase the user complexity. In addition, if the user presses the wrong button, the remote-control may enter a mode that the user doesn't know how to get out of or to accidentally make changes to the set-up configuration that the user may not know how to undo or must expend great effort to determine how to undo.
Each electronic device may come-with its own remote-controller. Often, a user may have multiple remote controls in a given user location (e.g., a separate remote for television; DVD-player; and music system). The user may need to press buttons on two or more remotes to cause the desired activity to occur. The various remote controllers may look confusingly similar to each other. The user may difficulty locating the remote controller needed to cause a desired control action. The button layouts may differ from one remote controller to another. In addition, the remote controllers take up limited space near (e.g., within reaching distance) of the user. Also, the user may temporarily misplace a remote controller(s).
What is desired is a simpler way of remotely controlling and/or interacting-with electronic-devices.